Beat movement, also called Beat generation, refers to a set of literary, political, and social attitudes principally associated with certain American writers and artists during the 1950’s. These writers and artists were concentrated in the North Beach section of San Francisco, in the Venice West section of Los Angeles, and in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City.
The beat movement was characterized by personal alienation and a contempt for convention. The literature of the movement celebrated stylistic freedom and improvisation (spontaneity). Its influences and themes included jazz, Eastern mysticism, drugs, and sexuality. The beat movement featured the uninhibited experimentation of several rebellious younger writers. Allen Ginsberg‘s poem “Howl” (1956) and Jack Kerouac‘s novel On the Road (1957) served as important statements of beat ideas. Other major beat writers included William S. Burroughs, Gregory Corso, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and Gary Snyder.
The word beat has several meanings. It can refer to feeling tired from working or traveling, to the basic unit of time or accent in music, or to the quality of being blessed or “beatific.” Members of the movement embraced these multiple meanings. Critics of the movement accused the “beatniks” of embracing anarchy, incoherence, and obscenity for their own sake. However, the movement did capture a generation’s dissatisfaction with what it saw as the dull conformity and false values of “square” society. The beat movement also advocated peace and civil rights, which set the stage for the radical protests of the 1960’s.
